1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film image input method and a system thereof, more particularly to a film image input method and a system thereof wherein an image of a developed film for a still camera is focused on an image sensor through a taking lens and image signals, which are transferred photoelectrically by the image sensor, are output on a TV monitor, whereby the image of the film is replayed on the TV monitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a film image input system wherein a developed film for a still camera is focused by an image sensor such as a CCD and an image of the film is transferred into image signals, thereafter, the image signals are output to the TV monitor and the image of the film is displayed, is disclosed in WO90/04301, Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-75922, Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-56345, Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-22656 and the like.
WO90/04301 discloses a camera and film image input system which use a photo film provided with a magnetic recording track and Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-75922 discloses a film image input system which uses a film cartridge wherein a developed film for a still camera is wound around a single spool.
Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-22656 discloses a film image input system wherein when an instruction is given to make a multi picture (hereinunder, called an index image), a developed film for a still camera is wound or re-wound every one frame and the image date of every frame is taken through the image sensor and compressed to memorize in an image memory for one picture the index image is displayed on the TV monitor based on the image data memorized in the image memory.
Further, there is another conventional film image input system provided with a zoom lens and scan mechanism for taking out only necessary image range within one frame of the film to magnify (for trimming), an image sensor rotating mechanism for changing the length and breadth of the film image or the like.
In a conventional film image input system, when the image displayed on the TV monitor is edited (for example, the length and breadth of the image is changed, a format such as a high-vision size, a panoramic size and an ordinary size corresponding to the ratio of the length to the breadth of the image is specified, or the display/non-display frame is specified in case of displaying all frames in sequence), the image for one frame is displayed on the TV monitor thereby to edit the image while monitoring.
Then, in the conventional film image input systems, a two-dimensional image sensor is used as an image sensor, so that the brightness, the white balance and the like which vary with the taking environment can be corrected at real time to obtain the image data. However, there is a problem in that a two-dimensional image sensor is more expensive than a one-dimensional sensor (a line sensor).
When the image data for one frame of the photo film which is fed continuously is taken with the line sensor and the still picture is displayed on the TV monitor based on the image data, there is another problem in that a fine image data of which the brightness, the white balance and the like have been corrected can not obtained though the image data for one frame is taken once, since the image data can not be obtained at real time like a two-dimensional image sensor.
Further, in the conventional film image input systems, when the image displayed on TV monitor is edited, the image for one frame is displayed on the TV monitor and then the image is edited while monitoring. Thus, there are other problems in that all frames photographed in the film can not be story-edited easily and effectively because a plurality of frames are not displayed on the TV monitor at the same time.
Japan Patent Application Laid-Open No.5-22656 gives a description of that in which an index image is produced and displayed. However, the index image is used for selecting a desired frame to be displayed on the TV monitor, not for editing.
Incidentally, the above-described index image can be used for editing, however, the conventional film image input system uses a two-dimensional image sensor. Thus, to produce the index image, the film must be wound or rewound one frame at a time and the image data for every frame must be taken by the image sensor during stopping of the film, whereby much time is taken for taking in the image data of all frames in one film.